Sarah Honan is a talented artist who at only 19 years old, creates art not for her ego or validation or fame, but for the benefit of others. She paints post mortem portraits of murdered women starting in the 1950s until current, so that these discarded and forgotten women can finally have a voice and in a sense vindication.. that they are someone.. not just a worthless sexual object. She's trying to encourage other women artists to do the same as there are thousands of women in the Jane Doe data bases.

Remembering Jane Doe:the art of Sarah HonanBy Zora Burden Sarah Honan is an artist, activist, and feminist from Ireland who creates profound artwork based on the images of unidentified women known as Jane Does here in the US starting in the 1950s until today in a series called Blink. At only 19 years old, she's finished her first set of the series in 2014 and has started to garner great accolades in the past few months by both press and the art world. Her artwork not only immortalizes these forgotten women but honors them and as she says gives a voice to not just these women but all women whose voices have been silenced throughout history due to gender bias.

She has been honored on both International Women's Day and during Women's History Month for her incredible efforts in celebrating women and bravely addressing extremely important but incredibly intimidating subject matter and women's issues in her work. She says her work deals with the identity, death and the frailty of the human connection. Sarah uses actual post mortem photographs of women for her portraits with only the coroners' statistics to tell these women's stories, but with her art she's giving these unknown women a memorial and tribute to their life. Some of the women in her art have been recognized as a result and their loved ones were finally given closure. Sarah created a blog that documented her daily progress throughout the creation of the series, which you can find on her website JaneDoe.ie. that has in depth emotionally charged and thought provoking entries recording her reflections and feelings in the form of poetry and essays, as she worked through the difficult process of painting these women. She says she'd like to see the art she's creating to memorialize the lives of thousands of women who died unknown into a movement, with other artists participating to make a feminist and humanist statement which empowers the idea that all women matter. She funded her work through an online crowd-sourcing and got a huge response of support by women around the world, so much that she exceeded her goals.

The work itself was very exhausting and she knows it's a hard subject for viewers to confront but it's important but the more disturbing it appears to the viewer, the more it may illicit a response to action. She writes in one entry about the women in her work: "Every one of these women was somebody’s daughter, sister, aunt, friend, waitress, maid, patient, boss, partner. Some were even wives and mothers. Somewhere along the way these seemingly significant connections were severed or at least ignored." She says to allow these women to be forgotten, with their lives dismissed as if they never existed, is detrimental to all women. Now she's given them their life back in essence through a legacy and her art carries a sense retribution for these women having lost their lives prematurely, as if they didn't matter and without resolution, without a name.

She feels that these Jane Does represent how women are treated in society and the lack of identity and personal significance throughout history, that women in many cultures are disposable and too easily dismissed or ignored. She hopes her art will change how women are viewed and objectified in society and wants women to get involved in empowering other women in whatever way they can, no matter how insignificant it may seem. She feels feminism needs to be reclaimed as a word about community and support for one another and to create a discussion about gender bias and abuse towards women that is still so acceptable in many cultures. Her art makes a statement about the way women are portrayed in classic art forms given to rigid standards of unrealistic beauty and stereotypes in portraiture as well.

Honan also says that in the care she took in researching the history of these women, recreating their appearances and in the arduous work of the paintings themselves, she is giving them the love and care they may never have had while alive and is creating a legacy they never got a chance to create for themselves. For me, I feel Sarah Honan should be honored for Women's History Month for addressing this harrowing work of giving women back their power, their voice, their unique identity, making them whole again, returning the life stolen from them. The title Blink came from a poem she wrote that was inspired by the project’s subject matter. "Why to lose a life, To lacerate a limb, To char a thigh, To expunge an eye, In a Blink." All life is important and should be recognized regardless of gender or class or race and with her art she makes a powerful statement and testimony to this. Zora Burden: Will you talk about your upbringing and what your early artwork or aspirations as an artist were originally? Had your environment or family influenced your work?

Sarah Honan: I've lived in Waterford, a small city in Ireland, my whole life. My family is quite matriarchal - I have 3 older sisters and my grandmother also played a huge role in my early life as well as my parents. Most of my family work in the arts in some form or another but no one is involved in visual arts. I don't really consider myself an artist - this was never an aspiration for me although I've painted since I was young. I concentrated on academics as a teenager and went on to study English and Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin but unfortunately had to leave in my second year due to illness. I've never had any formal training as an artist.

ZB: How did you become inspired to do the series Blink? What was the message you wanted to convey by creating this art?

SH: One night I was coming to the end of a painting, it was late and I went in search of new subject matter. I'd become tired of painting the same beautiful, flawless faces over and over and thought if I found something with more meaning, more of a story behind it, perhaps it would keep my interest. I've been interested in the topics of feminism, the representation of women in society and female identity for years and always wanted to have a voice in the conversation. I began to think of anonymous women, of lost women and thought of the term Jane Doe. I went in search of a database and found the US Unidentified Persons Database. When I saw how many cases there were I knew one painting wouldn't be enough and so a personal endeavor became a very public project. I just wanted to create some form of legacy for these women. But as time passed I realized that these women had a very powerful message to relay to the world about gender based violence and identity.

ZB: How did you gather the information on the Jane Does here in the US and what made you decide to paint the women you have in particular? SH: All the case files are public record. The Unidentified Persons Database has over 2,000 women on their site but only a small proportion have images attached to their case files. I studied every case that had a morgue photo attached and then had to whittle it down. This was done on a combination of factors. Many had extremely striking photos and I was immediately drawn to these women. Others had, let's say, more generic photos, or even poor quality photos but had exceptional case files that I just couldn't leave behind.

ZB: Since you started out going back to the 1950s and go up each decade for the women in the series, was it hard to find the information on them? SH: The information in all the case files is sparse, but yes the earlier ones tend to have less. Many are open homicides and therefore there is only so much that is released to the public. But generally, the Unidentified Persons Database is extremely comprehensive.

ZB: Do you feel that there are more women unidentified after death than there are men? Do you feel women are more easily forgotten about and their cases left unanswered because of a dismissive attitude towards women in our culture? What made you decide to use the cases of unidentified women from the United States over other countries? SH: The US is one of the only countries with such a comprehensive online database so it was more a matter of logistics than anything else. In fact, there are are more John Does than Jane Does due to men's higher risk of homelessness etc. But because of my passion for gender studies and issues surrounding female identity I focused on women. Women as a gender have historically been forgotten and overlooked and I felt like these Jane Does represented that in a very powerful way.ZB: How many of the women in your series died of unnatural causes and did that make it emotionally difficult for you to paint them? Were there some that affected you on such an emotional level it hindered your work? SH: Unfortunately a lot of the women saw violent deaths. The women who had obvious wounds on their faces were harrowing to look at, but I almost felt an even stronger sense of duty to them. I couldn't concentrate for extraordinarily long periods of time, I would paint for 14 hours a day but take breaks quite often because I just couldn't look at the photos anymore.

ZB: You had mentioned that because the work deals with the incredibly intense emotional subject matter of death that you've found yourself isolated during the project and that this alienation affected how you feel about these women and changed the way you think about human interaction, will you talk about that? SH: It's difficult because my family and friends were incredibly supportive but that didn't make it any less difficult to talk about. My connections are so strong in that my family are my friends and my sisters are a part of me very being. We have always been incredibly close despite our age differences and different life paths. But as far as human connection in general I think it's far more frail than we would like to believe. These women were mothers, daughters, sisters and wives and they just fell off the face of the earth. We all like to think of ourselves as very protected and insulated in the social media age but in reality what happened to these women could happen to any of us given the right culmination of life choices. I think it just taught me to nourish relationships, to put time and care into the connections I have with the people I love because if you don't there's no guarantee that they'll always be there.ZB: Your art isn't just art for the sake of creating but works to give a form of feminist activism, memorial and legacy to these otherwise forgotten women, which is incredibly powerful. You have said that in painting these women you give them a legacy and voice, that this represents all women throughout history without a voice due to the oppression, will you talk about that and what it means to you? SH: The physical art has always been secondary to me - it's the cause that matters. Giving these women the care and love and attention that they may not have seen in their lives. They have a voice, a voice that was silenced for whatever reason and I'm just a facilitator in allowing them to speak once again. Through this project these women can not only speak for themselves but for every woman throughout history and across the world who has been thought of as less then just because of her chromosomal make up. It means everything to me and more so it means everything that in general the public have seemed to understand this too. I feel a little insignificant in that this project isn't about me, was never meant to be about me and I don't even call myself an artist. I was just someone who saw something that shuck them to their very core and felt a visceral need to respond to it.ZB: Some of your statements on society and women's equality are as powerful as your art, like when you mention your concern that feminism is no longer being addressed even though we still need activists on behalf of women's rights all over the world. Will you elaborate on how you feel about this? SH: I'm very exposed to feminism, so I know how many writers, artists, filmmakers and activists are addressing the issue but I actively went looking for these organizations. I don't think feminism plays a role in the mainstream consciousness despite it's growing popularity among college students and certain high profile celebrities. I think because in the letter of the law we are afforded the same opportunities as our male counterparts we don't stop to question whether it is the law that influences our young men and women or is it the media? Because the latter has a lot to answer for. We live in a world where our education systems have not caught up with the internet, television and film. We need young men and women to recognize the dangerous stereotypes that the media has created for both genders. Because we live in sound bite culture - where people read headlines instead of stories we don't realize that every time a young man or woman sees a hyper sexualized female back up dancer ten times more often then they see a female political leader their world view is being inextricably narrowed. There are people out there who are fighting this fight, I didn't come to these conclusions on my own but it needs to be addressed on a mass scale.

ZB: How many galleries have you exhibited these in and was it hard to find one that was not willing to show your work because they were too uncomfortable with the subject of death? How do the viewers at the shows react usually? SH: We've only exhibited in my home city so far as an installation in a vacant shopfront. You can see photos of this on the website. I would love to show the work elsewhere, anywhere really because it's all about having the faces seen by as many people as possible. The art is meaningless without the viewer and therefore the audience becomes part of the art itself. As I said, I'm a complete novice with no connections in the art world but I will of course jump at any opportunity that arises.

ZB: Have you ever had a family member or loved one recognize some of the women in your paintings? Was this also part of your intention when creating your art?

SH: Not yet but the paintings only became public on Feb 28th ahead of International Women's Day. However one girl had been identified in the interim. Jane Doe 1979 was identified as Tammy Jo Alexander in Jan 2015, almost 36 years after she was murdered at the age of 16. I would usually check the database every couple of weeks to see if any had been identified but with the run up to the exhibition opening I let this habit slip. I only found out in early March.

ZB: How would you like to society do more in honoring these forgotten women? SH:Simply viewing the work honors these women but as for doing more I suppose it's just about continuing to spread the message of the project. Honoring these women can be achieved by continuing to question society and not accepting gender roles or stereotypes.

ZB: Do you see these women as part of your own family now? Have you become emotionally invested in them? Would this make parting with any of the paintings difficult? SH: Well they are definitely a part of me and my story. I feel incredibly connected to them and they've affected my life in an unimaginable way. It may be hard to part with them but at the same time the physical paintings are only the headline of a much longer story.

ZB: Have people expressed interested in buying your art and if so why do you think they are drawn to a particular one?

SH: As of yet we have not sold any of them, but if that time comes all profits will be donated to organizations that help close the gender equality gap. Everyone is different and I like that people see different things in different paintings but I can't say what it is that they see in those pieces.

ZB: You make sure to include all the statistics with your paintings of how the women died and the coroners reports, which in essence tells their stories to some degree. How do people view your art once the reality that these were real people really sinks in? SH: That's a difficult question to answer because I can't see the people who are viewing the case files given that they're viewing my website. I think it's important to include the case files because it adds some sense of context to each piece and reminds the viewer of each woman's individuality.

ZB: Will you talk about how long each painting takes to create and the process involved in making each one?

SH: All the paintings took different lengths of time depending on various factors. But it took me just about a year to create around 20 paintings so that should give some indication.

ZB: How many more portraits do you see yourself doing for the Blink series on Jane Does? Will you continue this for a while? I'd like to see it continue..it's very important work. SH: I would continue but it also very much depends on why you are continuing. The original 20 were made for the purposes of being seen and if the new work didn't have this same intention I'm not sure would it have the same value.

ZB: How has your art changed your views on death or society as a whole since creating this work, how has it changed those around you? SH: I've always had a very palpable fear of death and concentrating on it for too long has induced anxiety attacks in the past so for the first few weeks of the project this was something I had to deal with. I've never really looked at it as a project about death - it is more about society and human connection. It has definitely altered my views on human connection and relationships. I now see the fragility of the bonds we make in our lives and how quickly they can be severed if not cared for. Relationships rarely end in a huge confrontation, more often they just fizzle out, people continue on their paths and may never think about the other again except for a passing thought. I hate the saying "You're not the center of the universe" because everyone is the center of their own universe but I think we just need to sit down and prioritize what's most important in each of our lives and then actively try to maintain these things.ZB: How do you advise women to find their voice in society today when so many women are ignored or silenced by a male dominated society whether it be through art or otherwise?

SH: I think it's less about finding a voice and more about having confidence in the voice you already possess. I think it's about questioning the world we live in as women because the world developed in order to facilitate men's needs and now that women are more present in every area of society we are finding ourselves conforming to the system that existed before we arrived. We are still asking female politicians about who will look after their children and referring to them by their first names instead of their last. This is just one example. There's kind of a sense of 'just shut up and get on with it' when it comes to addressing feminism and gender inequality. Women are afraid of being labeled as a feminazi or man-hater if she expresses concerns with the gender imbalance in society. What both men and women have to remember is that advancing the role of women in society benefits everyone. In the developing world, educating a girl is one of the single greatest return investments and likewise here in the developed world, looking beyond a woman's physical attributes can only be a good thing.

ZB: Do you see yourself as a feminist or activist and if so how do you wish to continue this beyond your art? I'm a total feminist and anyone who believes that women should hold equal status as men in society are feminists. My feminism and activism are primary, the art is secondary, I'll take any opportunity to voice this in the world and if that happens to be through art then that's what I'll do.

ZB: What other artists of your peers or in history inspire you? SH: This is awful but I really don't know a huge amount about art. I more take inspiration from activists. Mariska Hargitay is a huge inspiration - she used her platform as an actress and has done so much for the survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence as the founder of the Joyful Heart Foundation. Jennifer Siebel Newsom's documentary Miss Representation literally changed my life and is the reason I call myself a feminist. Likewise with documentary maker Kirby Dick. Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn introduced me to a whole other side of female oppression with Half the Sky. I think writers and filmmakers who bring gender inequality to the mass media are so important. Of course there are huge female role models like Mary Robinson, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Hilary Rodham Clinton, Oprah (of course), Gloria Steinem, Billie Jean King, Madeline Albright, Lisa Ling - there are just so many! ###

San Francisco Music 2013 in ReviewBy Zora Burden

As author of a recently published book on women musicians spanning back 50 years, I was asked to write up a Year in Review of my favorite musicians, most notable shows, and music related events in SF for 2013. There were many this year despite the struggling arts and music community among the drastically changing landscape of our beloved city once known for its rich creative environment, culture, artistic freedoms and bohemian lifestyles. Many of the city's artists and musicians have been forced out of San Francisco because of absurd, near criminally high rental rates due to the techies taking over the city, which is quickly turning SF into a barren wasteland of gentrified bland.

Many of our city's cherished music venues and other near historical landmarks have closed in the past year to make way for modern luxury condos specifically built to accommodate the wealthy techies, while the city is losing its charm and character. So I have much respect for any artists or musicians who can successfully thrive in SF despite all this. One such person who has recently made a difference by providing a venue for musicians is Carole Lennon who owns and runs the Lennon Studios rehearsal space, which I remember it back in the 80s consisting of just a few rooms on Capp and 16th, but has now grown into a huge location on Dore and 9th.

She not only allows musicians to perform free shows on Friday nights there but has held benefits for non-profit causes and activism like March Against Monsanto and Rocket Dog Rescue, both of which had a large line up including The Guverment (members of the Avengers), SF resident surf band The Coppertones and Mia D'Bruzzi from Frightwig's band Gone to Ground. Lennon Studios was also the venue for the 2012 Mabuhay Club Punk Rock Reunion at which some infamous punk bands performed like the Mutants, Avengers, Toiling Midgets, The Lewd, No Alternative, the Afflicted and Frightwig, who made history regrouping after decades to perform for this show. The event inspired this year’s 3 day SF Punk Homecoming that also showcased original SF/Bay Area punk bands like Impatient Youth, The Mutants, The Offs, Penelope Houston (the Avengers), Nervous Gender and Frightwig, for another groundbreaking performance.

As a teenager who hung out on Broadway and saw many shows at the Stone, On Broadway and Mab, Frightwig were an important band for me in my formative years and influenced so much of who I am today. To see them active again as a band has been thrilling. Frightwig have played many shows this year and re-releasing old songs and recording new ones for the EP Hit Return. They also opened for Redd Kross and the Melvins at the Great American Music Hall on New Year's Eve. Another great addition to the Bay Area music scene has been the return of punk icon and activist Bill Collins, who was famous for performing in the bands MDC, Fang, Special Forces, Operation Ivy, Verbal Abuse and Christ on Parade. During his time back East he was a social and political activist, with his pro union band Rabble Rousers among many other projects. He donates his time as a music teacher and will be teaching private guitar lessons and in workshops called Beginning Punk Guitar at 924 Gilman in Berkeley. Since his recent return, he's performed at many benefit shows like the Special Forces reunion benefit for Mike Filth’s cancer treatments.

With Bill's presence back in the Bay Area we can have faith that the music scene is about to get a whole lot more exciting, and genuinely punk again. Speaking of punk icons, indie cult film maker Jon Moritsugu and his partner in crime/wife Amy Davis had left San Francisco in the mid 2000s and settled down in New Mexico but are still going strong in their creative endeavors, unleashing their first film in over a decade with another brilliantly comedic, trashy art masterpiece Pig Death Machine. After coming from New York to SF in the early 90s straight out of the NY's Cinema of Transgression and included among such luminaries as Richard Kern and Nick Zedd, Jon Moritsugu and his wife Amy Davis made some of their most infamous and best cult classics here in SF like Hippy Porn, Terminal USA, Mod Fuck Explosion, Fame Whore, Scum Rock ("not punk rock, it's scum rock!") with many Bay Area underground celebrities.

Pig Death Machine has been described as "a sci-fi, psychological horror, screwball ride of chaotic, day-glo fever dreams and glitter-dusted nightmares... absolutely brilliant and utterly repellant" by Rafu Shimpo News, with a sonic assault of a soundtrack that features Jon and Amy's own band Low on High, called lo fi indie garage punk, that's as much campy, sexy, noisy fun as his films. Pig Death Machine has shown at numerous film festivals and venues including the Chicago Underground Film Festival at which Jon and Amy received a Lifetime Achievement Award. The film had an honored reception and premiere here in SF at the Roxie Theater and a showing at the ATA. They've performed with their noise punk band Low on High at many SF venues and hope to perform again in the summer of 2014.

Another local musician who deserves a mention who is constantly striving to keep the soul and style in the SF music scene is guitarist and vocalist Nero Nava who became most known for his band Barbara Steele (named after the Italian giallo actress). The band’s sound was totally unique, described as romantic swank punk and soul, and the best dressed band in SF, performing in vintage tailored suits that would make Marcello Mastroianni proud. The band came to an end upon the tragic death of Nero's close friend and band mate Mike Jalali who passed away in 2007. Nero Nava and band-mate Alwyn Qeubido have been involved in many new musical incarnations since and collaborating with another bay area musical treasure and style icon Rykarda Parasol, with Nero directing one of her latest videos Thee Art of Libertee. His new band City of Women (inspired by the Fellini movie of the same name) is their latest creation playing what they call punk, soul, art rock, inspired by Prince, The Stooges, The Velvets, Roxy Music and King Crimson. They recently released a limited edition, self-titled album, City of Women.

As an old school death rock/goth since the early 80s, I've had a secret that I'm no longer afraid to admit, I've always been huge Prince fan and was grateful to have seen him perform since his early years. So upon learning about the new Prince cover band Princess, which consists of two gorgeous and talented women - Maya Rudolph (of SNL fame, and a natural musical talent as she's the daughter of Minnie Riperton) and Gretchen Lieberum... I was beyond excited! This year they played at a comedy club in SF, and though both women are comedians they take their cover performances seriously.

Their music is a homage to Prince and they do it incredibly well, replicating every Prince nuance, all his orgasmic howls, grinding moans, and screeching yelps you'd hear on the actual songs. This year they also performed at The Music of Prince tribute at Carnegie Hall in New York. The two together complement each other and can be as erotic an experience as an actual Prince concert.. One of the more notable shows this year was by the Icelandic band Dead Skeletons who came to SF for a show in May at the Brick and Mortar. The band formed in 2008 when the band’s creator and singer Jón Sæmundur, known as Nonni Dead needed a musical accompaniment for an art installation of his at the Reykjavik art museum.

For this show he created the Dead Mantra, a meditation on fearlessness with the mantra "He who fears death cannot enjoy life". The song became an underground hit that resulted in the LP Dead Magick in 2011. His music's themes are like audio versions of Vanitas and the Danse Macabre which focused on death and the fragility of life to inspire spiritual awareness or the momento mori skulls used in the work of the Symbolists which elevated art into a mystical experience. I find myself listening to Dead Skeletons along with the soundtrack to Alejandro Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain, which a lot of people don't realize Alejandro himself composed all the music for. Jon is an incredible inspiration as he's been living with HIV for 20 years yet continues to create and find meaning in life through his artistic invocations and magick.

Upon learning his diagnosis, having to face his mortality he's become a shaman of sorts here to teach us his own unique vision of philosophy, spirituality and the esoteric. His mantras, chanted over rich droning melodies in which he uses numerous magickal items to create aural conjurations and what he calls spiritual battle songs, recorded "in the dead temple of the dead monks" are a meditation on death, to reach total transcendence, the contemplation of the six bardos, and transformations of ascended masters. This is evident in many of the songs on the album, most specifically with the proceeding single BuddhaChrist. His first experience making music was working with Anton Newcombe of Brian Jonestown Massacre for the My Bloody Underground album. He currently collaborates with Anton for a skyped live streaming internet radio show called Dead TV. Nonni continues to create talismans of his Dead concept in clothing, posters and album art. Another highlight was Anton Newcombe’s band Brian Jonestown Massacre headlined this year at the Fillmore.

This year also saw the rare performance of the band Goblin at the Warfield, their first US tour since their formation 40 years ago. Goblin is an Italian progressive instrumental band most known for its atmospheric soundtrack work in giallo films most famously creating scores for Dario Argento’s Deep Red, Suspiria, Tenebre and Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. Three of the original members regrouped for the show, which was a multimedia experience (projections of horror film footage to accompany the songs and a dancer), it was an audio video feast for the eyes, with the entire performance lasting well over an hour and a half. One of the most thrilling moments was when the dancer performed ballet during the theme for Suspiria.

Fans of Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi (who wrote the semi-biographical screenplay for Suspiria) will appreciate that their daughter, actor/director and musician Asia Argento has released her first solo album this year called Total Entropy. A band inspired by Suspiria and steeped equally in mystery and the occult, rumored to be based out of either Eastern Europe or Afghanistan - Suspiria Mater Vision performed this year in San Francisco with How I Quit Crack at the Elbow Room. The band is known for being the most notorious of the ‘witch house’ genre and is the best in the occultnik dark wave scene with a sound and aesthetic based on couture fashion, horror, the esoteric and dark witchcraft. The music is experimental trance, sometimes disarming yet haunting and melodic. Their fascination with the 1960s and 70s black arts underground/ Summer of Hate is obvious in many of their albums and singles titles like Inverted Triangle, Exorcism of the Hippies, Reincarnation of Baba Yaga, Welcome to the Witch House, Hollywood Necronomicon, Second Coming and Hallucination 1969 (which was rumored to be recorded at locations where Kenneth Anger filmed Lucifer Rising and the infamous Sharon Tate house).

A really exciting show this year was White Hills opening for The Cult at the Fillmore for their national tour together. White Hills is a powerhouse of a psychedelic fuzzed out space rock band consisting of the duo Ego Sensation and Dave W. Dave hails from the San Francisco music scene in the 1990s before moving to New York to form White Hills. The band has garnered a huge international fan base and has released numerous albums, the vinyl editions especially the covers are artistic masterpieces and highly desirable collectors’ items, of which I have many. They're dedicated to extensive touring, especially in Europe. Just on the heels of the national tour with the Cult, White Hills performed at the premiere for the new Jim Jarmusch film Only Lovers Left Alive in Germany in which the band appears. Another spectacular event was the Zola Jesus performance at the Palace of Fine Arts who was accompanied by Magik*Magik Orchestra (Mivos could not attend West Coast shows) and musician, conductor/composer J.G. Thirlwell (also known as Clint Ruin, Frank Want, and Foetus) who had written string arrangements for their 2012 Guggenheim performance, which resulted in the album Versions.

This year, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds also performed with a string orchestra, along with a children’s chorus at the Bill Graham Auditorium for his new release Push the Sky Away, playing songs from the album with a few older songs that I had not heard him perform in SF since the late 1980s and early 90s with Blixa Bargeld at the time. It was very exciting when Blixa began residing in SF and performed at Project Artaud Arts Complex in the late 2000s. A favorite of mine is the Secret Society of the Sonic Six, which is a band with a totally unique aesthetic of what I call "goth noir" in which Astar the vocalist performs in all the vintage glamor, mystery, and danger of the 1940s pulp novels. And for those whose taste really runs dark, King Dude performed at The Chapel and the band Ghost at the Regency Ballroom. Maybe for 2014, given the general disregard the tech companies have for the arts, maybe local musicians can channel their frustrations creatively to form their own New Kids on the Black Bloc band and play live impromptu shows in front of said tech companies and start ups across the city, to help them appreciate the arts more.###

Remembering Liquid SkyBy Zora Burdenhttp://www.liquidskythemovie.com/There are some movies that have such a strong impact on your formative years, they become a part of who you are and sometimes they seem to parallel your life so perfectly it's a kind of divine synchronicity. One such movie for me was Liquid Sky, a new wave cult classic, sci-fi, satire art film directed by Slava Tsukerman, about a woman finding power in her sexuality via the relationship between herself and aliens when a spaceship lands on her rooftop apartment in New York.

The aliens arrive on our planet seeking their sustenance in the human neurological secretion of endorphins that are released during orgasm. They target the protagonist of the film Margaret, a demure and seductive, model turned heroine, as their conduit for such means, which results in the deaths of those who have sex with her. Margaret is immune to this fate because she cannot achieve orgasm despite her lesbian lover's highly charged libido or the many males who find her sexually irresistible and vulnerable to their desires. The aliens need for this orgasmic chemical resembles that of the heroin addict which is also a prevalent theme of the film, so much that the title of movie is named after a slang term for heroin called liquid sky.

To me the film contained many powerful statements on various modern day social ills. But most importantly, it was about female empowerment in a type of highly stylized avant garde revenge film, presented within the context of extremely clever satire and set in ultra chic New York fashion and club scenes. It has a stunning juxtaposition of contrasts, glossy shocks of neon in a dark atmosphere of black comedy. Liquid Sky dealt with a broad range of controversial subject matter like gender stereotypes and archetypes, homosexuality, drug abuse and addiction, the commodification of a woman's sexuality in the advertisement, fashion and beauty industry, sexual identity, murder, rape, even necrophilia. It was ahead of its time, not just stylistically and musically but as a precursor to the New Wave scene and the Androgyny Movement that exploded by the mid 1980s in popular culture. Also, because of its theme of death as a result of sex, it was an ominous vision of the AIDS epidemic to come later that decade as well. Liquid Sky was a huge success in 1983, with the most screenings of any independent film, which has remained just as popular, if not more today.

I was too young to see this film's run in the theaters but was somehow able to rent it in my early teens then on BETA (we rented R rated movies without a parent present many times from a store at 24th and Church Street). Noe Valley, one of our favorite hang-outs since we lived in the outer Mission, was almost a microcosmic extension of New York's SOHO or Village - with its vintage and post punk stores for clothing, alternative records, and esoteric books. I had already identified with post punk and developed a unique style that later become known as either New Wave, New Romantic or Death Rock in the mid 1980s. So not only did I feel I resembled Margaret (played by Anne Carlisle, who also co-wrote the movie) but I identified with her on a personal level as a lesbian who felt very awkward in regards to her sexuality. I slowly began to identify as bi-sexual and channeled my feelings about this in my aesthetic, embracing both sides of my personality in extremes simultaneously in a very sexually charged manner for such a young age. I found that dressing this way was rebellious and intimating to others, which I highly enjoyed. I dressed according to what I was attracted to in females and males, coupling extreme glamour (white/gray hair, vampish make up, casual fetish clothing like hobble skirts, lingerie and stilettos) with a masculine edge (military inspired clothing and suit jackets). It wasn't until I had seen the film did I suddenly feel less alone and alienated. I saw myself in Anne, her characters portrayed in such a chic and clever context. Anne made me feel proud of my sexuality and appearance, as she so boldly and stylishly displayed in the film as both Jimmy and Margaret. Part of the reason I came out as a lesbian and later bisexual at such a young age was because of this film.

The movie itself changed everything in the 1980s and created a sexual revolution of what I called the Androgyny Movement. This was a sexual revolution for some, the freedom for true sexual identity experimentation and for others simply rebellion in gender ambiguity. The need for sexual identification is so deeply embedded in our society that a person's character, heritage, race etc is secondary and foreshadowed, completely lost in some cases. There was a great thrill in causing gender confusion through sexual ambiguity, as this elicits such fear in most people, more so even than politics or religious preference. It was never about transvestism, a term which many people find offensive, as it reiterates rigid, divisive sexual stereotypes in dress codes. Margaret's ability to embrace her masculinity and feminine side made her a hero and example to me , she was free of gender stereotypes, as a gender neutral.

The movie was also the ultimate feminist statement with Margaret regularly proclaiming the adage: "This Pussy Has Teeth!", playing on the age old fears of a woman's asserted sexuality or vagina dentata male phobia. The movie had many underlying messages and symbolism that informed generations to come. There were movements here in the US that created sexual liberation and rebellion prior like The Cockettes or Glam Rock a decade before but these seemed to focus mainly on men finding their sexual freedom in dressing as women in an almost female caricature. The UK had the Teddy Girls but this remained more of a subculture. The Androgyny Movement in the 1980s gave women their time to embrace masculine appearances. Of course now with the revolutionary iconoclast Genesis Breyer P'Orridge, he has developed and become a living example of what he calls Panandrogyny, which is the abraxian styled unification of both sexes into one, absolute freedom from sexual definition into personhood.

Dualities will always exist in the world however, so society needs to learn to embrace not only their shadow shelves but to find a balance in the dichotomy of the masculine and feminine nature that exists in all of us to become a complete person. This is reflected in the doppelganger relationship between Jimmy and Margaret, in which Anne embraces both sexual archetypes of male and female, reiterating the two by fluctuating this contrasting dynamic of aggression/passivity and as predator/victim. Liquid Sky is the ultimate post modern tale of eros & thanatos.

I had the honor of interviewing Anne Carlisle about Liquid Sky, her personal life, and the making of Liquid Sky 2, which Slava Tsukerman will direct and co-write the script for. Anne was one of kindest and most personable celebrities I've ever talked to. There is also a documentary Slava Tsukerman is working on about the making of the film called Liquid Sky Revisited. I think this infamous quote from Margaret in the film sums it up perfectly: "And they call me beautiful, and I kill with my cunt. Isn't it fashionable? Come on, who's next?"

Zora Burden: Liquid Sky meant so much to me as a youth and still does, you were the reason I identified with the movie. Since you had co-written a lot of the script with Slava, was any of it based on your real life experiences or people you knew?

Anne Carlisle: Yes it was. Of course it was exaggerated and made more dramatic, but it was based on people that I knew. Jimmy was based on a boy I modeled with. He stayed at my house sometimes but I tried to get him to play the role, we actually had auditions with him. He would speak ok on camera sometimes but he had too much of an attitude. He had drug problems and he wouldn't show up when he was supposed to. So we both had this idea that I would play Jimmy, remodel it to a bigger contrast between them. My audition was trying to convince Slava that this was a good idea. So we went to a bar, I think we were doing a location, I said watch this... I dressed as a man, I walked up to a woman and was going to walk out of the bar with her, she had no idea I wasn't a man.

That was my audition and once he saw that he said OK. (laughs) I felt bad after because I had to tell her, she was absolutely amused. She said; "Oh wow, I wouldn't have thought that but now that you say it, I can see it!" I felt a little guilty while I was doing it but it was interesting. The junkie character in Liquid Sky was supposed to be played by Tom Baker but he was too involved in drugs and wasn't reliable. He was in some Warhol movies, it was a shame what happened to Tom, he just succumbed to his habits. He wasn't able to be in the movie and we had to recast but we had written that part for him.

The girl who interviews me and asks me questions (Nellie) that's my sister Sarah with the red hair. It was funny too as she asked me about my childhood and she's my sister. The models in the club scene of the movie were actually La Rocka models, some of the models went on to attend Bob's acting classes, many were from his classes. They were characterized, I was the closest [in real life] to the film. Both of the characters were close to who I was, you put them together (Jimmy and Margaret) and you get pretty close to who I am.

ZB: So how did you meet Slava? How did you two start working together?

AC: I had a movie I wrote that I produced and acted in, it was a super 8 movie he attended. At that time in the club scene in New York, there were a lot of people making super 8 movies and showing them in the clubs. It was not playing at a club when I met Slava though, it was at a screening house, a place on Broadway for underground film makers, I forget who ran it. I met him [during] normal hours so he could go to it (laughs).

The casting director Bob Brady brought Slava to the screening of that movie. They were casting another movie that did not happen. That's how I met Slava. The super-8 film was called Fish, it played at the Tier 3 (TR3). Fish is a film that's almost like a poem, about a woman helping another woman, sexual politics. I would play it in clubs after people were done dancing. I'm going to transfer it to digital and Slava is going to put pieces of it on the documentary of the making of Liquid Sky. That's when I started writing with Nina Kerova (Slava's wife) and then I started with Slava, after Nina. Bob Brady who plays the acting director in Liquid Sky, was also a casting director. Almost all the people that were in Liquid Sky were from his classes. I also went to Bob Brady's acting class. He's since passed now. He had his own scene at night, people would come and pay to learn acting for the camera.

I met him because I was going to the School of Visual Arts, I got my Fine Arts Degree there. I was making a video art piece so I was always in the Film Dept. Guys would need someone to do the tracking exercises, so they would pull me in front of the camera, then they would use the camera dolly, they would get graded on that. They said, "You were really good, you should come to this class." A couple of them insisted, so I went to this class where Bob was teaching actors. He gave me a script and he thought I was pretty good, so I kept going. He said, "You know you're auditing this class, why, you could get credit for it." So I signed up for it. Eventually he said, "I have professional classes in the evening, you should attend those as well." So I did both, really intensive acting classes. I was a painter but it was a time of minimalism and conceptualism. I couldn't really get that going. I came to New York to be a painter but I went towards the acting. Though I still paint.

ZB: Will you talk about when you worked in the modeling business?

AC: I was hanging out at night in the clubs with many cult figures. Niki Carson, who was also a club guy, got together a bunch of us who he thought had an unusual look that was our own and formed a modeling group called La Rocka. It was a real modeling agency but a lot of the stuff we did was at night in the clubs. For example, before La Rocka, there was Betsy Johnson and other designers. She was doing it late at night in the clubs, that was way back. Andre from Cinandre got me some work. We did it mainly for the clubs, though we didn't get paid a lot. I did do one or two shows at regular hours but mostly modeled for people in the club scene.

But we weren't warm to each other, it was kind of hard. There was this idea that life was hard and we were nihilistic, the way we related to each other was kind of a demonstration of that. We related in that way because it was part of our performance in life. Everyone was so creatively frustrated it came out in their behavior because they had no where to put it. During that time in New York, there was almost a demonstration in our personal lives. What we had here in New York, everyone was leaving in droves, so we could afford to live here but very poorly. We could have a life at night by living with each other, finding cheap apartments in bad neighborhoods. We could live in NY and go to the clubs all night, it created a milieu for this that does not exist right now. You have clubs now but they are not frequented too much by artists. Although there is this huge wonderful gay/androgynous scene going on right now but a lot of artists have left, they can't afford to live here.

ZB: I remember renting Liquid Sky as a kid in 1983 (on BETA), it was really exciting to see, I resonated with it. By my mid teens in the 1980s I was in a way living the life of Margaret, going to a lot of underground roaming clubs here in San Francisco that were mainly under-aged and attended by all types: Post Punk, Mods, New Wave.. these predated raves which were a totally different thing.

AC: It was so new we didn't have a name for it and then at one point someone coined the term New Wave. It was one of the photographers who said that to me. People started taking our pictures, so they needed a name for our look. I have pictures of myself pre Liquid Sky but a lot of times it was for portraits or more modeling pics. It was a very exciting time.

ZB: A huge part of what made the 1980s so exciting for me was what I call the Androgyny Movement, like with the Mods, the New Romantics, the New Wave scene, Gothics etc. It was a very sexually ambiguous time, a time that allowed people to be completely free, no gender divides or roles existed, there were no restrictions. For some people it was fun to play around with gender roles but they weren't necessarily gay or bi or even motivated by their sexuality at all. It was simply a rebelliousness.

AC: That is exactly true!

ZB: I hope you don't mind me asking but is your sexuality in real life similar to that in the movie?

AC: There is a psychological term for what I am, I am gender fluid. Which means whoever I'm with, I am loyal to that partner I'm with, I adapt to them in a way. I always notice the beauty in both [genders]. I think bi-sexual makes it seem like the person is going back and forth, that sort of thing or sounds pernicious. I like both.

ZB: Liquid Sky captured that whole feeling, in my personal life, that even though I was born female, I could identify with both genders and loved the freedom at that time to express the qualities of both, being in the moment, despite what others think. I get so mad when people use the sexist and outdated term transvestite for a male or female who doesn't dress within the social confines and expectations of their gender because it reinforces sexual stereotyping, rigid outdated gender roles. To embrace both gender roles is liberating.

AC: That is exactly what it is, being in the moment. You know way before all this happened in the late 1970s, I cut off all my hair, I had a lot of hair, thick, curly and long. I chopped it off and started calling myself an Androgen. I didn't know there were other people like me. I felt very alienated at that point. I thought I made the word up but realized that Androgen is a scientific term for a fluid released in the brain, so I can't use that word anymore. I just couldn't stand it anymore, I felt my femininity was a stereotype, I was disgusted with myself. I was seeing myself on camera and thinking this is a manipulation, it's not even true. I tried to get down to the core of who I was, so I cut off all my hair and that was before I went to the clubs. Many women in New York were my inspiration but not exactly what I was trying to reflect.

ZB: It felt like in the 1980s, it was such an incredibly creative time. That the way we looked was an art form, becoming a living art form, like Dada or Surrealism.

AC: We called it Theater in Life. Slava and I called it that at the time.

ZB: So you are writing Liquid Sky 2 currently? How does it feel to be working with Slava again?

AC: Yes, I've already written a rough first draft with Slava but we'll see if it gets made, for low budget it's always a question. It's a little more fantasy than the first one. If it gets made I'll be very happy. This wouldn't be the second time I've worked with him. I've written scripts with him before but they didn't get produced. I wrote screen plays before Liquid Sky. I love cinema and I'm very happy to return to this subject matter. In Liquid Sky 2 Margaret becomes an avenger for women, it goes a little further. Hopefully we can make this movie.

ZB: Since the first film was made so early in the 1980s and there was nothing to really base the New Wave fashion on yet, what was the inspiration for Marina Levikova, the clothing designer for the film? What look was she going for?

AC: I would take them to the clubs and she saw the way I was dressing but exaggerated it. Movies have to be bigger than life to be interesting and dramatic. She took those elements and exaggerated them, she did a great job with very little money. The colors were brighter and things were bigger but she got the gist. She did a very good job. She's Russian and her husband is actually the director of photography on the movie, they worked together.

ZB: So it just kind of reflected the time and the place, with the heroin and fashion.

AC: You know what my experience was, there was so much cocaine! Oh my god so much cocaine. Literally people giving it to you to hang out with you, you didn't have to buy it. They'd give it to you to stand next to you at the clubs. That was before the "rhesus monkey study" which was shown on national TV, where they had monkeys given [self administered] cocaine until they died. They would not want food, just cocaine, until they died. People thought it was a non addictive thing, there were no studies on it, so until that came out on television people were going wild with the drug because there was no definitive, negative research.

ZB: There was so much in the movie that prophesied what was to come later of the decadence and indulgence of the 1980s because they didn't know what the risks were at the time with drugs and sex.

AC: It had this weird thing where it even predicted AIDS, needles and death. All these people started to die, it was very scary. When we were making the film, we didn't realize what was going on but we started to see it. They got sick and died very fast back then, they had no drugs, it was awful.

ZB: Yes incredibly tragic. It was eerie how prophetic the movie was. I was wondering who decided to use the term "This Pussy Has Teeth!" in the film? The vagina dentata reference but in a modern sense, reiterating the fears of the vagina society has. I liked that because a lot of people use it as a kind of empowerment now, as a result of Liquid Sky. It may have been dark and morbid but it became a feminist slogan after the movie.

AC: You're right, that's an ancient thing, that the vagina has teeth, so it was great we could incorporate that in the movie and make it work.

ZB: I completely identified with you in the film. I felt proud and totally different about myself after seeing Liquid Sky. It gave me this sense of self that might not have existed otherwise.

AC: Thanks for saying that. That's what I hope it does for people. It wasn't easy, it was really difficult, the whole process, but that's what I meant to do. It took about 3 months to shoot. It was emotionally difficult. I was living on the set. You know the scenes in the rooftop apartment, that was actually an apartment a friend of mine had. I asked when they were going to leave, so I [began] living in that apartment, so we could do special shots. I had to always wait there, [when] we had special effects shots that had to be done. It was on 28th Street and Broadway. I'd like to go see if it's still there but they're currently fixing up the building so they can make a lot of money. I don't even know if I could get up there, with all those stairs you have to climb to get there. Those stairs during the rape scene, it was the stairs you climb to get to the penthouse in the movie.

ZB: Do you know when the documentary might be finished?

AC: Slava is currently working on it but I don't know when it will be finished. Like for Liquid Sky 2, when you're making low budget movies, you have to adapt to your budget, time of year that you're shooting, the location. I have to change the script depending on where you are going to shoot. So it's hard to talk about something since it's an ongoing process. Just yesterday Slava asked I change something, so it's changing all the time. It's even more sci-fi this time, there's still a UFO. No heroin this time though.

ZB: Someone mentioned that at a screening you had said how dangerous the neighborhood you lived in was, that going out at night helped you feel more safe in sleeping during the day. A lot of us who went to clubs in our teens who had no place to stay would end up going to clubs just to hook up with someone (platonic or sexually) just to have a place to sleep.

That's not why I went out, we did sleep during the day because we were out all night. I didn't mean that, maybe they misunderstood. We would not carry anything of value on us, we would have a [public transit] token and a little bit of money, not even ID because you would get mugged. But for us, with our appearance, the people that would mug wouldn't go after us. They could tell because of the way we dressed, that we weren't people who had money. I went around a lot at midnight by myself sometimes and it was kind of part of the thing but you knew you could die at any moment, that was part of the milieu. (laughs)

ZB: What clubs were you going to back then? Which clubs did you film the movie in?

AC: There were so many, Palladium, Danceteria, Mudd Club of course, Tier 3. I can't remember them, a lot of after hour clubs for the people who worked in the clubs, who would go after, it was totally illegal. We went to a lot of after hours clubs. I think that space for the movie wasn't one of the clubs I would normally frequent but we picked it because it had no windows so we could film 24 hours and not have to worry about sunlight or whatever. This was for the fashion show. The club at the end where I find the character that had originally raped me, that club I had gone to, it had great lights. That was one of the newer ones in Union Square. Most of the clubs were way downtown, on Canal Street. On the East Side there were some great clubs, smaller, good for filming like the one on Avenue A but I don't remember the name. With the underground clubs, they (the police) didn't ever bother us because at that time they had really serious problems in NY like murderers. It was at the height of the worst crime wave in NY history.

ZB: I wanted to ask about the woman who played Adrian in the movie, was she a friend of yours before the film?

AC: Paula Shepard was in the acting class. Paula, who played the character, is nothing like that. Slava and I coached her to teach her the character, the mentality of the character. There was a person we had in mind to play that role but when we had her read the role she said, "Oh that person is so evil, I could never play this character!" So really Paula Sheppard was the best actress, she's professional, she made the character and did the role, but is nothing like her. There was a person I had based the Adrian character on but I exaggerated her. The actress who played Adrian, we can't find her. Last we heard Paula was teaching Yoga in California. The person it was loosely based on is a very talented writer in her own right and she's a musician. She's doing very well, she lives in LA. I can't tell you who she is but she's kind of a known person, a cult icon. I would love to contact Paula but you know people have children and they don't want to be associated with movies like this.

ZB: Who wrote the spoken word performance art pieces Adrian did?

AC: Slava wrote them, Rhythm Box and the Eulogy for Owen were both written by Slava. He did a great job.

ZB: Was Rhythm Box a euphemism for a vagina?

AC: Well that and a vibrator. (laughs loudly)

ZB: Her character was very hard, you get so abused in the movie, verbally, physically.

AC: Yeah tell me about it. The movie was not easy for me. People all think it was fun to make, it was very hard to work those kind of hours. We worked incredibly hard, everyone worked so hard, the long hours. The editing was hard too, even though we were younger, it's really hard to make a low budget movie if you want it to be good. Right before filming, I had a cast on my leg because I fell going into Slava's building. I had some stretched ligaments from my ankle and I think the bone was cracked.

I took the cast off before the movie, so you see those ties (in the film) on my feet with the platforms, the weird black ties that I'm wearing, those are really ankle braces. You can see them occasionally but they're helping to keep my ankles in, so I wouldn't fall. They were stylish but they were there for a reason. I had a hypnotist so I wouldn't feel the pain, they hired a hypnotist. He came every day for a while. After all the shooting was done, I went out and was in a club and fell off my shoes and I could not wear those high [heeled] shoes again. I had to have 3 ankle reconstructions. I have mixed feelings about heels, they're really not good for you on the one hand but on the other... they look sogood, I miss the platforms.

They told me if I took the cast off my leg that I would have trouble for the rest of my life and I did. But it was my choice, I'm not sorry. For me it was very difficult because I really had to isolate myself to do the role. She's very alienated. We were shooting all the time, so I always stayed in character, I never went in and out of character. You know the people that were on the roof on my apartment, they were having a good time but I wasn't with them. I wasn't out there because in a couple hours they were going to have to start making fun of me and jeering at me and I didn't think it would be good for the scene, so I isolated myself.

ZB: Every line in that movie is so famously quotable, have you noticed people using the dialogue from the script in interesting places?

AC: No but I have had people send me the quotes and say they use them between themselves when they mean certain things when they're talking. Which is really flattering and I enjoy that. But I'm having trouble with the sequel because I can't come up with great lines like that, like in the first one.

ZB: I have faith you will!

AC: Situationally we have come up with the equivalent but not the dialogue in terms of the laugh lines. So I hope I can come up with those.

ZB: How did you get funding for Liquid Sky?

AC: It was a person who had made money in real estate and was interested in making money in movies, so it was advantageous for us because it worked out timing wise, that was Robert E Field. He's got his name in the credits. He really gave us a lot of room creatively. A lot of producers wouldn't and that's what made it so great, we had that leeway. When it came to editing, he was more involved but when we shot the movie he stayed enough out of it so we could do our creative work. We were also spending very little money. We were shooting for under 300,000 with 35mm film, done the best technical way. All the money went into the image and the sound of the movie.

ZB: For those who may not be familiar, will you talk about the infamous soundtrack for the movie?

AC: Slava went to a place where they had a synthesizer and he wrote it with some other people, they have credits with him. He had very strong ideas about what he wanted in terms of the sound.

ZB: Was there anything aside from your real life experiences, like a movie or art, that had inspired the film?

AC: Our idea was to make the most original thing we possibly could. I don't know about Slava but I did not have anything else in mind. There was a film maker that we would go to see, Slava and I went to see some David Lynch films while we were writing. We did go to see David Lynch movies and talked about them, we got inspiration from his films, his really early stuff.

ZB: What happened to the clothing from the movie?

AC: Slava tried to hold on to it but he couldn't, so it's gone. He has a lot of rehearsal tapes where I'm wearing my own clothing, so it's really interesting to see. I made my own clothes like from leather. I would spend hours making them, like skirts, vests and purses.

ZB: What was the rating process for Liquid Sky? Even though there wasn't really any nudity, did you have an issue with the language or content?

AC: There was a problem, we were afraid they'd give us an X rating. There were so many in Los Angeles who stuck their neck out for us. It looked liked they might give us an X which would have killed the movie. We wouldn't have been able to show the movie.

ZB: Did you have a target audience for the film? What was the reaction to it when it was first released?

AC: People didn't laugh like the way they do now. It bothered me because we thought it was funny, really funny. We thought what we made was a comedy. Maybe it was too early. They took it too seriously and then some people would get high before the screening and I didn't mean it to be a thing to take drugs to. I really didn't mean that, I was upset about that. Now the few screenings that we have had (recently) people get into the social aspect of it more. Hopefully people will enjoy it that way instead of use it for an excuse to do drugs.

ZB: You have mentioned that while in character as Jimmy, either during filming or off camera, you got treated differently by other actors and staff. That the women would flirt with you on set between shoots. Will you talk about that?

AC: Jimmy is complicated because he has a lot of charisma, a lot of this comes from his rage. It was disturbing to me because I'm playing this character who has problems with women because he can't satisfy them, he's gay but women are attracted to him. So while I'm in character as a man, pumping up the volume on this charisma, women on the set are interacting with me and I'm thinking this is horrible because these girls are attracted to me playing a sadistic boy. (laughs) But I couldn't break character because I have a job to do, right... and I'm thinking this is too bad, why do they like this guy?

ZB: You did make a very beautiful man, so you can't blame them!

AC: I was sad for the women because we always like these bad boys, what does that say about us?

ZB: I think it has to do with danger and passion being synonymous. Did you feel more powerful dressed as a man?

AC: I did. I hate to say it but when I was in character as Margaret, the cameraman would touch me all the time and hold my face exactly where he wanted me to stay, it was a very short focal point. They were having trouble staying in focus because they didn't have a lot of money for lighting, they wanted that very colorful look. So I was being touched all the time and moved all the time without asking me because Margaret is a victim and commodity and men would react to that character. Inside I was upset, oh my god! But as Jimmy, nobody touched me. Now I don't know if Jimmy was farther away or not but I think Jimmy did have some close ups. Nobody ever touched me when I played Jimmy. For long periods of time while waiting for them to set the lights or move the camera and I was staying in character, women would react to me. I stayed in character off camera.

ZB: Did you incorporate Jimmy into your real after the movie, like dressing more masculine?

AC: Well before the movie I often wore a man's jacket and a miniskirt. I mixed it up, both at the same time. I would wear pretty short hair for a long time. Up until it got closer to shooting rehearsals, I grew it longer. Trying to strike the balance between them was what I was trying to do. I went out recently and saw people who had that, you couldn't tell if they were men or women and it was great! There are people doing that now and doing a really great job.

ZB: Did dressing like a man make you feel different, like you were more free to be yourself? You had mentioned it made you feel more powerful.

AC: When I was a child I called myself Jimmy. I was a tomboy, a pretty intense tomboy. I played with boys and got in fist fights and stuff like that. I really had a boys haircut and boys clothes. I had always felt like it would be better if I was a boy. That I would have more authority and I would be happier as a boy but then at a certain age I got beat up. I realized I wasn't going to be a strong boy and thought this isn't working. (laughs) It's complicated, there's always these "as ifs" in my life like I'm living parallel lives. The characters you have enrich you, they're always there, latent, they're always a part of you. I don't know how to explain it, Jimmy is still with me and Margaret is still with me. I created them, they're part of me and I am them. But I would say Jimmy, he empowered me and while I was playing him I did feel more powerful as a person, more certainly than Margaret, she doesn't feel powerful at all. So then when she's given this power she has to use, so she has to go get this guy that raped her, she has a vengeance.

ZB: What was the meaning behind the fact that Margaret could not have orgasms aside from her character's survival? I mean with the consensual sex she had, was there a statement you were making about women and orgasms?

AC: Well how could she? She was in the missionary position the whole time! (laughs) I don't know about you, but this never did it for me, never. I think percentage wise very few women can have an orgasm when there's somebody on top of them. It would take forever in the first place, second place everyone wants to feel a little bit of control. But of course she couldn't have an orgasm if people were abusing her, even her girlfriend is on top of her. In those positions she was in, it didn't work for her. She's feeling so awful about herself, trying to please everyone, she's not centered enough to have one. She's trying to find happiness by pleasing everyone else. You can't really expect her to have a great sex life if that's what is going on in her head.

ZB: Will you talk about your being in Playboy and how that related to the film?

AC: Yeah, I did do Playboy. I did Jimmy and Margaret in Playboy. I did quite a lot of pictures and the reason I did it was because I couldn't pay my rent. That was when I decided to go back to school, so I couldn't support myself. After awhile when you get a little older you can't model anymore. I had been modeling for Ford Agency, and that's how I was living. It was nothing X rated, you can see my breasts. I don't think that's such a big deal. The pictures of Jimmy and Margaret can be seen on Slava's website.

ZB: How was your acting career since Liquid Sky?

AC: I did have small parts in big movies. I played a transvestite in a Crocodile Dundee. He didn't want to touch a man, so I was a woman playing a man playing a woman. I still get residuals for that.

ZB: Have you been approached about any Liquid Sky related projects? You know a lot of cult classics have graphic novels. A graphic novel on Liquid Sky, that would be amazing.

AC: That's a possibility. We have someone thinking of doing that. I actually did write a novelization, it's out on Double Day. It's very serious and it isn't the direction of where we are taking Liquid Sky 2. The book was not that successful. I wrote it from Margret's point of view and Margaret hasn't gone to college. (laughs) I wasn't so sure I did a great job on that. They printed a lot of copies, it's called Liquid Sky the Novel. We are thinking about a comic book. I have a friend that we're thinking of doing that with but it's in the future. That would be probably after Liquid Sky 2 is done, then we'll do the whole thing.

ZB: Thank you so much Anne, it's been an honor, you are so wonderful! I look forward to seeing what you come up with for Liquid Sky 2.

Today we feature guest journalist Zora Burden. Burden is the author of five books of poetry and a contributing writer for the San Francisco Herald and California Herald for over 15 years. Her autobiographical writing narrates Goeff Cordner’s feature-length film “Portraits from the Fringes.” A segment of this film became the award-winning “Hotel Hopscotch,” which was shown in film festivals across the U.S. and on the BBC. Burden’s work focuses on feminism, radical outcasts, surrealist art, social activism, and the esoteric. She is a San Francisco native, where she still resides.Today we present part 1 of a two-part series.]

Rosaleen Norton (1950s) [Courtesy Sonia Bible]

Rosaleen Norton was a witch, occultist, artist, journalist and philosopher, who was infamous for her unapologetic, brazen and sexually-liberated lifestyle in Australia during the mid 20th century. Norton was known as the Witch of Kings Cross, named after the bohemian Kings Cross region of Sydney, Australia. To her friends, she was known as Roie; to others by her magickal name Thorn. Norton practiced pantheistic witchcraft and what she called the night side of magick. She not only studied the Kabbalah but its shadow aspect the Qliphoth. She was a dedicated practitioner of sex magic and astral projection, exploring other realms and dimensions filled with both gods and mysterious creatures with whom she regularly communicated and captured in her art. These pieces were often compared to the automatic drawings of Austin Osmond Spare.She led an incredibly controversial life; one that was constantly exploited and sensationalized in the media. Norton started out as an illustrator for periodicals but was dismissed from her jobs because her art was deemed too controversial. She found her outlet through a liberal magazine called Pertinent and it was then she met poet and surrealist Gavin Greenlees.Together they held an art show consisting of a huge body of her work. The show resulted in some of her art being confiscated by the police, including the paintings Witches’ Sabbath, Lucifer, and Triumph and Individuation. As a result, Norton was prosecuted for obscenity.

After a long successful legal battle, Norton and Greenlees moved to Kings Cross. It was then she met Dulcie Deamer, called “the Queen of Bohemia.” Norton gained much notoriety in the area when her art was included in Dreamer’s poetry book The Silver Branch.

Norton and Greenlees home became a haven for local eccentrics full of murals and collections. They kept a placard on the door that read “Welcome to the house of ghosts, goblins, werewolves, vampires, witches, wizards and poltergeists.” A book of her own poetry and art was released in 1952 and was simply called The Art of Rosaleen Norton. Once again, she was charged with obscenity, and in the U.S. the book was destroyed completely.

For decades, the police continued to look for excuses to prosecute her. The constant court cases left her impoverished, but she never stopped pursuing her work as a witch and artist. Norton’s art is still treasured by many collectors today. It appears in galleries and is reproduced in books. She died in 1979 from cancer, but her last words were triumphant: “I came into the world bravely; I’ll go out bravely.” There is a plaque dedicated to her memory at Kings Cross.[Photo Credit: Clytemnestra Sardaka CC lic via Wikimedia]

In her day, Rosaleen Norton not only challenged every aspect of the female stereotype, but was also one of the most persecuted witches in the 20th century. Unlike her male counterpart occultist Aleister Crowley, who was never officially arrested once, Norton was arrested countless times. She founded her own coven and lived on her own terms through the great moral oppression of the 1940s and 1950s before the second wave of feminism ever began. Norton, in a sense, was a martyr for women’s liberation even though she did not identify with feminism. To commemorate this remarkable life, Sonia Bible has written and directed a new documentary called The Witch of Kings Cross. As Sonia says, “The time has come to debunk the myths and reveal an intelligent, witty, complex woman who deserves recognition as a talented esoteric artist and writer.” I had the honor of conducting an interview with Sonia Bible about Rosaleen Norton and the upcoming film.

Zora Burden: How did you first become introduced to Rosaleen Norton’s story and what about her compelled you to create the documentary?Sonia Bible: In 2010, I made a film called Recipe for Murder about women poisoning their husbands and family members with rat poison in Sydney in the early 50’s. During the research for that film, I came across Rosaleen Norton in various pulp publications. I started collecting articles about her and put them in the drawer, or the ‘too hard’ basket. But she just kept coming back and niggling at me, friends would mention her, I would see or hear things about her but I kept pushing the story aside…

Then in 2012, I was selected as an emerging filmmaker to be mentored by famous international documentary filmmakers as part of Adelaide Festival where Recipe for Murder had screened. Mexican filmmaker, Natalia Almada said, “There are no rules in documentary” and showed us her extraordinary experimental documentaries that had been shown at Sundance and The Guggenheim Museum. Then I just ‘saw’ it. The images were flying at me and I wanted to make an experimental ‘art’ film. Rosaleen’s story was the perfect topic …

What attracted me to her story? As a screenwriter and filmmaker, I’m always looking for a story that can become a film. It needs all the elements of a feature film. Some stories are better told as books or essays. Rosaleen Norton is a strong female protagonist. She has goals, she has obstacles, there is drama, there are antagonists and other character archetypes, and most importantly there is an opportunity to explore big themes. The film must be its own artwork and say something to the world.ZB: Was is difficult to gather information on her?SB: After receiving some development funding from Screen Australia in early 2013, I was able to employ a researcher, Imogen Semmler, for a month. We accessed everything that we could from library archives, police records, court transcripts, newspapers and all the photography and moving picture archives. That was a solid starting place.

Since then I have continued to research and am constantly uncovering new material. I am actually overwhelmed by the amount of information that I have. It all helps to build a picture that is truthful. Unfortunately, some of the television appearances that Rosaleen made have not been kept or have simply been lost in the records. I did find a television appearance that I believe noone else has seen for over fifty years. I got shivers up my spine when I previewed it at the archives…

I continue to gather research material and am about to embark on the major task or pulling all the images of artworks together. It is very difficult as the film is not yet financed, so I continue independently, without a research assistant or the other resources you would have on a commissioned film. I am working with a fabulous producer, Peter Butt who has a long career making history films. He is always there with advice and support so I’m not completely alone in a sea of research.

ZB: How were you able to fund the process so far?

SB: In late 2012, we got some development funding from Screen Australia and Screen Queensland … I delivered all the requirements for the funding in late 2013 and since then have found it difficult to raise the finance to make the film … We did a crowd funding campaign last year and raised enough money to film some test drama so that I could make a slick promo, as well as film a few more interviews … Luckily my husband is a cameraman and we own equipment. So we have both [have] been shooting interviews with no money, no-one is getting paid and it has been incredibly difficult. I think it’s a real shame that Australian history is not supported by the funding bodies at the moment in this country …This story is on the edge of living memory and I feel responsible for the research that has found its way to me. I have become the caretaker of this story for the time being and I am always aware of doing the right thing by Roie…

ZB: The response to your work has been positive. Do you think it would have been embraced like it has if the film had been planned years prior?SB: Currently people are reacting to a three minute promo and the pitch for the film. I do think the time is ripe for this film, and I am pleased to be the one who is making it. I will be doing my utmost to make something that really makes people think about the world we have created. I aim to make films that question the world rather than answer the questions.

ZB: Was there a large interest in Rosaleen among fans and friends that inspired you?SB: In my life, the interest in Rosaleen has grown organically with the project. It started out as me making my third women’s history film, possibly for the ABC. Since then it has morphed into an independent ‘art’ film that could honestly now be described as an obsession. I have met wonderful passionate people who knew Rosaleen, or who have studied her work in one way or another. I have been blown away by the effect that this woman has on people. She has touched so many peoples’ lives. I feel privileged to be the person to introduce her to a wider audience. It is also a responsibility that I don’t take lightly…

ZB: Did anything about her personally resonate with you?SB: Rosaleen was courageous and uncompromising. She is ultimately inspirational. I think she has inspired me more than anything. She has inspired me to take risks step outside the safety of convention. In the last three years, that I’ve been working on the film, I have faced scrutiny and criticism, unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. Rosaleen has given me the strength to face the obstacles and to just keep on creating and not get distracted by the critics.

Zora Burden: Do you see her as being a feminist icon?Sonia Bible: Rosaleen Norton was at the vanguard of feminism and the counter-culture revolution. She was doing it, living it, decades before the second wave of feminism. From the late thirties, when she left art school she was living an unconventional life. She was so ahead of the times, and it is important to look at her in that context. Women were allowed to work during the war, and after World War II, women were told to go back into the homes, get married have babies and to desire washing machines. Divorce was frowned upon, eighty percent of the population was Christian, abortion was illegal and there was no social security for women at all. In the fifties, Rosaleen was divorced, living in sin with a man 13 years her junior, had no children, was living as an artist and was a self proclaimed witch. I certainly consider her a feminist icon.

ZB: Did she have many women who admired her? Or were there mainly males in her social circles?SB: I spoke to Dr. Barbara Creed, author of The Monstrous Feminine about Rosaleen Norton. She told me how in the late sixties … she had heard about Rosaleen Norton. She and her friends hitchhiked to Sydney, went to Kings Cross and walked around looking for her. They had hoped to catch a glimpse of Rosaleen Norton, a woman they idolized as a feminist icon. By the late sixties and into the seventies, Australia was catching up. Younger educated women would have seen her as a feminist at that time.

Rosaleen did have a lot of male admirers in her life. In the early research stage, I appeared on the James Valentine radio show, with the aim of getting people to call in if they knew her or met her. We had a lot of callers and then people emailed later too. One woman, whose father was infatuated with Rosaleen, contacted me. She said she thought it was interesting that everyone who called in were men. Or the story was ‘My father… my uncle… or my grandfather…’ I did notice this trend as well.

But what I learned from working on Recipe for Murder, when you are dealing with history, it’s important to keep digging. Often the women were there, they just don’t become part of the history. Women of that era are less likely to come forward. They think that their story is not important, so as researchers and tellers of history we think that they didn’t exist. By digging deeper and also because the film has been a long time in gestation, I have found that there was a strong community of creative women around Rosaleen, particularly in the earlier years.

I interviewed dancer Eileen Kramer, who has just turned 100. She lived with Rosaleen in an all woman artistic commune in Circular Quay in the late thirties. There are more stories or creative collaborations in the forties. As with most people, Rosaleen had many different stages in her life. There certainly was a stage when there were a lot of men in her life. There was also a stage when there were a lot of transgender people in her life …

[Courtesy S. Bible]

ZB: How do you feel she affected the women’s liberationmovement then and now?SB: I admire her courage and determination. She never compromised, even though it would have made her life considerably easier. I think, in the late sixties and seventies, she would have been an inspiration to young women at university etc. I do think that she has the potential to affect the women’s liberation movement now in a more profound way. ZB: Will you give examples of how Rosaleen was punished by the male establishment for her rebelliousness, like with her extensive arrest record and constant scapegoating in the media?SB: Following the razor gang war of the 20’s and 30’s, when Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine ruled the underworld, the Vagrancy Act of 1929 was introduced to stem the violence. A consorting clause was designed to clean up the street gangs. It specified heavy penalties, including jail for anyone who consorts with reputed thieves, or prostitutes, or vagrant persons who have no visible or legal means of support.

Kings Cross police abused the vagrancy act to persecute artists, transvestites, musicians…anyone who didn’t have a job really. Rosaleen Norton and Gavin Greenlees were constantly arrested on vagrancy charges and thrown into jail. A couple of Catholic detectives really had it in for her, including the notorious Detective Bumper Farrell. Once the tabloid media realized that Rosaleen Norton sold newspapers, they pursued her for stories, and it didn’t matter if they were true or not. Dr Marguerite Johnson talks extensively about the changing relationship between Rosaleen and the media in the film.

ZB: Can you describe the many ways she lived an unconventional lifestyle?SB: For a woman to be an artist in the late 30’s, 40’s and 50’s was a rarity. To be a woman artist painting occult themes was extremely unconventional. Rosaleen lived in group housing with other young women artists in Circular Quay and then in Darlinghurst. In those days, women got married young, had babies and that was it. Looking after a husband and a family was the only expectation.

ZB: What inspired Rosaleen’s infamous artwork? How did she cope with her arrest? Please talk about the obscenity laws that they used to prosecuted her.SB: Rosaleen Norton holds a unique place in Australian art as an esoteric artist. The late Dr Nevill Drury explains how she went on to the astral plane through trance and met the various gods and goddesses there. Her paintings and drawings are depictions of these experiences. Art curator and dealer Robert Buratti explains how her art is like the most ancient art, where the artist depicts their place in the universe as a way of figuring it out. Dr Marguerite Johnson talks in detail about the meanings and origins of the gods and goddesses in Rosaleen’s art and the notion of duality – between male and female, human and beast. The work is extraordinary and when you start to look into the symbolism in the work, it comes to life on a whole other level.

Rosaleen Norton coped with her obscenity charges with dignity. She never apologized for the work. She tried to explain it and charges were often dropped. The judges on the most part seemed quite reasonable, but it didn’t stop the police from continuing to arrest her for the same pictures over and over again. The police were the censors.

ZB: How did Rosaleen survive as a woman artist during a time when women had no real options for work, living as a single woman and was so open with her sexuality?SB: Rosaleen worked as a journalist, writing articles for ‘pertinent’ magazine. She and Gavin were employed by Walter Glover to create the book The Art of Rosaleen Norton. She did little paintings and drawings that she would sell at the cafés. People would bring food and coffee to the house, and she would give them a little drawing or something. I’ve uncovered quite a few of those artworks, all with similar stories. She was always very poor, but she didn’t desire a material life. She thought that people should worship nature not the dollar.

ZB: Will you describe how she influenced those around, and how her coven came about, operated and evolved? Did she prefer to work alone and the coven was more of an entourage?SB: The coven was made up of a small group of close friends who liked to practice magick together. The members I’ve spoken to are protective of their privacy and I respect that, so I don’t have much to offer in that area. She worked alone at times and other times with a small close-knit group.

ZB: Do you feel she was ahead of her time with her explorations of the astral plane and the occult, working with the entities she met, along with her other esoteric interests?SB: Rosaleen was a very studious woman. She was well versed in the works of Jung, Freud, Crowley, the Jewish Kabbalah, and much more. She developed her own unique practice while continuing to learn from others. She was a prolific writer, and much of her writing is still coming to the surface through my research…

ZB: Do you feel that any of her work was simply done for shock value to get media attention? Or was it a response to her villainization by society? Did she begin to consider her life a form of performance art in a way?SB: I think her art was a serious ritual practice and that she should be recognized as Australia’s leading esoteric artist. She did little caricatures of judges and police that were a response to what was going on. But there is a difference between the little works for bread and butter and the major works. There are comments about society in some of her major works, about censorship … She was certainly provocative and communicating through her art. She held a mirror up to society and they didn’t like it. I don’t think that she considered her life a performance, as performance art is a modern concept. She did what she did to survive and to live the life she wanted and that included managing the media. You’ve got to remember that there was no precedent. People weren’t as media savvy as they are today.

ZB: How do you see her as inspiring women today to empower themselves?

SB: I’m not so sure that she would want to inspire women today to empower themselves. I think she did what she did, and lived the way she wanted for her own reasons. And that’s why she is an inspirational woman without necessarily trying to be. Women’s history is so important as it’s easier to see where we are now, by looking back at where we’ve come from. There’s still a way to go so let’s celebrate the things that courageous women like Rosaleen Norton did to pave the way.

Zora Burden’s Interview with Jack Sargeant about his new book“Against Control” for Re/Search PublicationsQ: How did you first learn of Burroughs and which of his works meant the most to you at the time? How has your appreciation of him grown throughout your life?

A: I had older friends – only a couple of years older, but that’s enough when you’re a teenager. I would have been, maybe twelve or thirteen, hanging out with fifteen—maybe sixteen-year-olds. One in particular was very interested in music and literature, and by the time I was in my mid-teens I had been exposed to various forms of experimental music and culture through this friendship.

This era – the very end of the seventies and early eighties – was the great period for post-punk bands making literary references and cultural links in their artworks or statements or interviews. You’d pore over details for hints of things, read interviews with bands, look at references in liner notes and so on.

So, invariably I was fairly young when I first heard of Burroughs, and I guess I read The Naked Lunch early on. From the ages of, say, thirteen or fourteen till eighteen I read a lot of things—especially modern literature and cult novels.

But from the age of, maybe ten or so, I remember reading all the time. I was always one of those kids who read a lot; especially pulp horror novels, science-fiction books, and so on—I remember as a kid reading all those mid-seventies horror books like James Herbert’s The Rats and Lair. And as I got older the stuff I read just expanded and expanded as I followed ideas and links and inspirations. I mean, I am sure this was fairly common amongst people I knew, and I imagine your youth was the same.

I think that I was also very lucky that I had those opportunities and came from a very literary subculture. There were so many bookshops and, even better, you would discover what I guess you could call “alternative bookshops.” These would stock all manner of left-field books: beat stuff, punk stuff, political books, philosophy, fanzines, sex books, occult literature and so on… a fantastic opportunity to search out the unusual, chance upon hidden gems and uncover new works. Of course, alongside these there was also science-fiction bookstores too, so a lot of very good literature was just so readily available. My weekends consisted of walking around bookstores and record stores and browsing for whatever looked interesting.

In relation to William Burroughs in particular, as time has gone on, I think I’ve started to appreciate the ideas behind the works more, and, returning to read these supposedly “difficult” books periodically, they seem easier to read and get things from. Reading them now is like engaging with old friends.

Q: What about his work personally resonated with you, and how did this affect your own writing or personal views on society? Had you already held the same philosophies/ideals he articulated in his books?

A: I’m not really sure what resonated with me as a youth. I think, primarily, the idea of this figure of the visionary… the black humor… really mattered. When you heard those recordings of him reading, which I guess were around the same period that I first read the books, and that deadpan drawl, that helped make sense of the work, I think. As to the ideas he advocated, I think the emphasis on The Outsider resonated with me a lot. But there was always what I guess you could call the industrial-culture fascination with sound and image and mutated technologies. But when I was a youth, Burroughs was part of a much wider literary culture – it wasn’t, and isn’t, just Burroughs. I read De Sade, Flannery O’Connor, J.G. Ballard, Kathy Acker—you know, a lot of different things.

Q: Which medium of his work did you appreciate the most? Do you feel one form of his work best represented who he was as a whole?

A: I don’t think anyone can be really represented with one or two aspects of their work. All aspects of somebody’s work reveal different parts of their personality, I guess. For me: I dip into the books frequently, I listen to the recordings. I am sure that they all reflect different parts of him as a person, while simultaneously, in some way, perhaps not reflecting him at all. I mean, we read into things—we project our own ideas and so on into the work of others.

It is also, to me, very important to remember that people change throughout their lives, so in my thinking the notion of “who he was” is not a fixed thing but a developing process. Most obviously, if you read his volumes of letters you can see him change in some way as a person. But I believe that all of us change throughout our lives, whether through learning and experience, developing greater self-knowledge—whatever. I think as soon as people stop developing, or stop thinking, or stop learning, they stop truly living.

Q: Which of his works do you feel had the most impact on society and how do you feel his audience has changed over time?

A: In terms of having an influence on society, without a doubt, Naked Lunch. Primarily because it was one of those books that challenged so many of the existing censorship laws and it helped lead the way to a greater freedom in literature. The correspondence around it in the Times Literary Supplement is great, just to see the various people taking sides, arguing for or against this novel… that was included in the edition I first read, if memory serves, and offered some kind of context.

Of course, the cut-up trilogy [The Soft Machine, The Ticket That Exploded, and Nova Express] also challenged the ideas of what literature was, but that was part of a longer history of experimental textuality that helped re-define the nature of the written word. However, Burroughs also explored cut-up recordings and so on, which engaged in recorded sound in a new way… similarly the film-collaborations… especially The Cut-Ups which was directed by Antony Balch, with Burroughs, Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville, explored new potentials in editing and structure.

It would be impossible to say which areas of the many counter-cultures he influenced most because there are so many… I mean it’s safe to say that aspects of queer literature, industrial culture, satire – all were influenced by Burroughs in various ways. But then, things he did as a collaborator with Brion Gysin, Antony Balch and Ian Sommerville—to my mind the R&D wing of the Burroughs universe—things like the Dreamachine, cut-up tapes, movies, photographs and so on—have had an influence on the arts. too.

So, I think his work had an impact on society in cultural and political terms in relation to censorship but also in terms of influencing ideas around creativity and creative practice.

As to his audience changing, I’m not sure I’m not old enough to comment. I entered into William Burroughs through ideas from post-punk and industrial culture so that is, I think, the audience I am a part of. But of course, there’s also the counter-culture Burroughs that preceded that, the “Beat” Burroughs, then there’s the literary-academic audience, the queer audience, and so on. I think, like any good writer, there would be a hopefully limitless number of audiences and readings.

Q: When did you start writing about Burroughs or create your own When did you start writing about Burroughs or create your own work inspired by him?

A: I think, in the public eye, with my book Naked Lens: Beat Cinema, which Creation Books published and which has subsequently been republished by Soft Skull. But a few years prior to writing that I was loosely involved in contributing as part of a larger collective who organized an evening of readings and performances that happened around Burroughs’s 80th Birthday. This event took place in Brighton, England, and brought together local artists, writers and performers.

I did various cut-up experiments and so on as a youth. Coming of age listening to first wave industrial music—Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire and so on—there was a sense of a very particular Burroughs, which was the author of Electronic Revolution, sound experimenter and so on. This was a reading that was filtered through books like Vale’s RE/Search books on Burroughs, Gysin and Throbbing Gristle, and the volume on Industrial Culture. So, perhaps that was the influence on my work. I return to these key, central works often.

Q: What do you feel was the real catalyst or underlying motivation that compelled Burroughs himself to start writing?

A: I think that’s more of a biographical reading, and I’m not a biographer, or at least I don’t consider myself to be one. I’m much more interested by his ideas, or those ideas that emerge from his work. I like reading biographies, and periodically will sit down and devour a small pile of biographies (for example, recently I read Edgewise, the excellent Cookie Muller biography which I really enjoyed) but I don’t think I could write a biography, so much as periodically suture a biographical anecdote into something because it makes sense at that moment.

Q: Do you feel his freedom from financial constraints due to his trust fund played a large part in his ability to create his work? Do you think he would have had the same opinions and lifestyle had he been confined to menial employment?

A: I don’t know, I think that’s all open for debate… I mean, I’m sure that helped to an extent, but then other writers and artists have also pushed aesthetic or cultural boundaries while working full-time jobs—look at Charles Bukowski working at the post office

Q: Even though Burroughs was more of a literary ‘”lone wolf” how much of his work do you think was created as a result of collaboration, or from the urging from his peers?

A: As I said, I am not a biographer but I do think that he was encouraged by his friends and to me that’s wonderful, having people around who can support you intellectually. That support network may be more important than anything else.

Q: Since Burroughs sought to break all forms of restrictive conventions and boundaries on every level—metaphysical, personal, societal—do you believe his goal in his work was ultimately to document his explorations and experiments seeking this autonomy, or was he genuinely desiring to establish himself within the literary world?

A: He was out there pushing boundaries of what was considered acceptable content and he was challenging the very notion of the written text. So, I think that any sense of “marketability” must have been fairly limited. I think that’s perhaps the true sign of a genuine, fearless thinker: a person who will pursue their passions and interests rather than think of pleasing markets and audiences.

Q: Given Burroughs’s concerns with control, and his fear and vulnerabilities by possession of various entities, leading to his extensive work with the esoteric, do you feel his work in itself was a form of magick? If so which of his works?

A: When he writes about various forms of cut-ups as magic and so on, I think that could be seen as a form of chaos magic. I think that his work has probably influenced some aspects of chaos magic. The writer Matthew Levi Stevens has recently had a book published on this subject – The Magical Universe of William Burroughs, which is worth investigating for those interested in the specifics of that area.

Q: I’ve always wanted to know what is your writing process like and how do you research your subjects?

A: My writing process seems to be almost organic. I spent less time writing than I’d like, which I imagine is a common thing for writers to say, but I spent a lot of time thinking about ideas. I keep notebooks, and will spend a day scrawling notes or ideas down, gluing in pictures that are interesting to me, and so on, but whether these are part of my process or not I don’t know. I look through them, but they are more just a part of a creative thinking process, that somehow ends up in a written work, rather than obvious drafts of the text. Although sometimes there can be drafts of paragraphs in these notes.

When I actually write, I sit down and write at the computer. Then – normally – print it out and re-write on the manuscript, then edit in those changes. Then I sit and worry that it’s terrible. Then I revisit it and maybe change it again. Sometimes I can write, say, two thousand words in a couple of hours; sometimes it’s like a slow and painful crawl. I tend to have certain ideas I want to articulate, and if I am lucky then they come easily, but other times I can spend an entire week on a paragraph. Even if I do something else, that paragraph remains in my mind until I have spat it forth onto the paper. Of course, the reader sees none of this, and would probably care less, but the very arrangement of words in a sentence can cause me hours of an almost physical discomfort.

Q: What was involved in the creation of your book Against Control?

A: Against Control was a different process, because the pieces included are from lectures or essays that have – in one form or another – been written or published, so the process was more trying to tidy up things, chase up better references, re-introduce, edit or move around paragraphs that may have been excised originally, and so on. It was still gruelling for me, because that idea of looking at your own work is, for me, quite hard. I guess it took a couple of months to get everything in there sorted out, and try and keep the original tone of each piece, to respect my original intentions, and my original motivation.

Q: For those who don’t know, what other books, essays or lectures have you done on Burroughs?

A: Well, I already mentioned Naked Lens: Beat Cinema, but I have also written an introduction for Michael Spann’s essay on Burroughs in Mexico, or rather the Mexico Burroughs found himself moving in, which was published with a related Burroughs piece. The book is called William S Burroughs’ Unforgettable Characters, and is published by Inkblot. They’ve published some really interesting books relating to the Burroughs and Gysin world and are well worth checking out.

Last year [Feb 5-9, 2014] I appeared at The Burroughs Century in Bloomington, Indiana. I gave the closing session, where I talked for an hour or so about all the Burroughs stuff that fascinates me; Dreamachines, sound cut-ups and so on. I was talking in front of a huge cinema screen that I had tuned to static fuzz, so when I started talking about the flicker effect I turned on the projector and the whole audience had the quasi-flicker of static playing behind me, which I thought was quite enjoyable. That was a wonderful weekend. Oliver Harris was there and gave a great talk of course, Mark Hosler from Negativland was there and was performing, so I got to meet him and talk, and Lydia Lunch was there doing a spoken word performance and a talk at the event, so we got to catch-up. The whole experience was pretty much perfect, Charles Cannon who organized it did a great job. I believe it was the first event of the year-long Burroughs Century, and on his 100th birthday – which was the day the event started – they had a brilliant Naked Lunch-inspired birthday cake. It was also insanely cold, which meant I sampled local whiskeys and trampled through snowdrifts.

I’m also inspired a lot by my perception of lack: if something I want to see isn’t happening, I tend to try and make it happen. One time I was talking with my good friend Holiday about literature and culture and so on, and it dawned on the two of us that there was a real need for a space to disseminate some of these ideas. So, the two of us founded what we first described as a decadent reading group, which somehow became known as the Decadent Society. For a couple of years, from around late 2010 onwards, we held a series of fairly exciting public talks, readings and lectures on a variety of subjects. The idea was that I would give a talk and then somebody else would the following month, you know? What happened is that about four or five people gave some wonderful talks, and some genuinely exciting information and ideas were discussed and celebrated, but basically I gave about eighty percent of the talks over, maybe, two-and-a-half-years.

So, I was giving monthly talks on subjects as diverse as Harry Crosby, car crash pop songs, and, of course, William Burroughs to a small but dedicated audience. We held these talks in two different bookshops, a nightclub, and at a local art gallery, and they were always very enjoyable. We incorporated some performance elements too – we had the guitarist Mike Cooper perform – that was incredible; we had a naked woman as a human food platter which certainly challenged some people in the audience, and Holiday performed music. All ways of stimulating the imagination of our audience.

But with Burroughs in particular, for a while I would give an annual talk. I did one – which is included in Against Control – celebrating fifty years since the publication of Naked Lunch, I did one on the Dreamachine and flicker which subsequently inspired an essay, which again is in the book. I did a lecture on Burroughs and cut-ups. Many of these lectures were given in an underground art space in Sydney called the Mu-Meson Archives.

And I did one in Brighton, in the UK, early on, and we went to the fetish club the Torture Garden afterwards. And there were girls who had been at the talk hanging out half-naked in rubber and fetish wear. It felt good to see that there were these two communities overlapping, this intellectual book reading crowd and this sexy party crowd. I love that.

Of course as a result of Naked Lens: Beat Cinema over the years I’ve done many talks on Burroughs’s film collaborations with Balch, Gysin and Sommerville, and curated many related film screenings. I’ve also attended the European Beat Studies Network annual conference and given a paper there. I’m sure I’ll do others; I’m not done with Burroughs yet, although as an aside I recently gave a talk on JG Ballard.

Q: Will you talk about the many ways Burroughs broke the limitations of language and thought, and how you have utilized this in your own work? Can you advise others on how they can apply Burroughs techniques for their writing or any form of artistic self-expression?A: I think for Burroughs he worked with language, and through the cut-ups he totally engaged with pushing the very idea of written language to its limits. I think that demands a high level of concentration and focus, I recall that I read a quote somewhere, perhaps from Gysin, that Burroughs possessed a gimlet-like mind – which I guess is an ability to just focus on a point and focus down on it. If I’ve applied anything to my own writing, it’s to try and maintain a focus. Burroughs was also interested in semantics, and obviously addressed the failure of the binary either / or universe, and that’s something I’ve always applied to my own thinking. Whether I got that from Burroughs or from the “either / or / or” of Deleuze and Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus I am not sure.

But more than all of this, an absolute dedication to freedom of speech and self-expression is crucial to me. People like Burroughs fought for those rights, and as writers and artists we should never forget that.

I could stand up in a room and talk to the power and influence of Burroughs’s techniques and ideas, and the ideas of Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville and so on. But people come to the work themselves. I’m not sure about the context of advising people, I mean I wouldn’t advise somebody on how to apply Burroughs to their artistic practice if they didn’t ask, but then if they did ask then they’d already know.

But generally, I would say to anyone: go read the books and the cut-up texts, go and try that process, go and f*ck around with writing and see what happens. Not just cut-ups but permutations, stream-of-consciousness, and so on. I would also say things such as: keep notes of ideas, dream diaries; doodle, take pictures, record sounds that you like. Never stop thinking about your creative practice, read widely, search for what you need, pursue your obsessions. The lesson, if there is one, is to doggedly pursue your creative practice and do not give up. For me personally, Burroughs, and also those around him were all great innovators, and that’s inspirational, but I think that it’s an inaugural moment not a finale or closure.

In terms of specific writing exercises, I recently wrote a series of texts every night as the last thing before I went to sleep, for ten nights – this is after a day of working or writing or whatever already, and it didn’t matter if I was sober or drunk, tired or still energised – the fundamental idea was utterly simple: they had to be obscene. It was an interesting experiment and experience. Just trying to get my thinking into a different space, you know!

Q: What period of his life do you think was most productive in regards to output or quality of his work, and did the demographics play a part in this? How did his work, in the different countries he lived in, vary?A: I’m not sure you can measure productivity or quality, and I don’t really recognise these as actual criteria. For example, I love the volumes of Burroughs’s letters, and these were written simply as personal communication to his friends and they were published posthumously, so can they be included in his output? What about his photographs, which as far as I know were only recently exhibited—can we count those? His recordings are incredible, and to me a CD like his Real English Tea is essential, yet it wasn’t necessarily created as art to be released, nor was it released in his lifetime, so can we count that in his output?

And as to quality, I have revisited various artworks and get more from them the second time around… does that mean that the quality wasn’t there originally? Or does it mean that I found something else that spoke to me the second time? With many artists the way things are interpreted changes over time. The ability of many people to decode or read the work changes. Look at Van Gogh: here was a painter who was a total outsider and he had nothing, but he relentlessly pursued his aesthetic vision. Now he’s popularly recognized as supposedly one of the greatest painters of all time and you can buy copies of his works on postcards. The work didn’t change, the audience did.

Q: How did his work with “Orgone” [theory] aid him during his life, with illnesses or his addictions? What made him so fascinated with Wilhelm Reich? Do you believe or use “orgone” yourself?A: I think William Burroughs had an incredible ability to search out neglected ideas, unusual science and so on. I write in the book of how he went searching for Yage. Nowadays it may be more common for people to travel, but the world is a different place today; now people travel with credit cards and the limitless ability to contact people via cybercafés. But to decide to go and search for a psychotropic plant way off the beaten track in 1953—that strikes me as an incredible thing to do.

I think in the case of Reich, Burroughs had this fascination with the possibilities of orgone that Reich described, and decided to pursue it. If you look at Burroughs’s letters and so on, you can see an openness to possibilities and ideas; whether in the cut-ups, film, the literary value of scatological routines, Yage, Dreamachines and the orgone box. He was a man who seems to me to have been very interested in the possibility of the worlds that existed around and within him.

As far as I can see, he was at various times as focused on scrying techniques as he was on target practice. So, I think orgone was part of this continuum of searching out ideas that were unique, that perhaps challenge prevailing orthodoxies and so on.

As to my own experiences with orgone, I have a friend who has been documenting experiments growing plants with orgonite, but I haven’t spent time sitting in boxes or whatever. I was recently at the Wellcome Trust, one of the best museums in London, and they had an exhibition on Sexology with an orgone box and people were able to sit in it, although the time people were spending in it and the number waiting prohibited my taking part.

Q: What facts about Burroughs have you discovered that many might not know about him during your research? About either him or any unpublished works?A: I think I have certain specific obsessions, and they have developed over the years. My readings are probably informed by those obsessions and I think my writing would probably reflect that. As I said, I am not a biographer, so I don’t approach projects as a way to search for specific new biographical facts, but as a writer I like to share my ideas and my understandings and in this case my interests, readings, obsessions and ideas. This all said, I think few have made all the connections that I do or read in the way I do, so I think there’s new things in my work, new connections, new ways to consider things, but there’s not any new stories of his life or anything like that.

Q: Will you talk about how certain subcultures and their creative output like TOPY [Temple of Psychic Youth] was inspired by Burroughs? A: In part coming of age listening to Throbbing Gristle, Monte Cazazza and so on… basically industrial music and No Wave defined my tastes. So, I really entered Burroughs via post-punk… and to me his ideas of sound, cut-ups, infrasound, and so on, all informed the mise-en-scène of first wave industrial music. The fact that he really found an audience in post-punk and punk showed some aesthetic lineage.In Against Control – when I look at the records released around Burroughs – I mention the releases by Giorno Poetry Systems, and I think you can really see some shared ideas about the nature of communication amongst the artists there. It’s telling to me that so many of the musicians and bands that are on those records emerged from punk and industrial music.

Q: How do you hope your book will inspire or affect its readers?A: That is a really intriguing question, and I am really unsure how to answer it. I suppose that I would like people to read it and enjoy it, but also that they get something from it, whether an urge to listen to a Burroughs recording or the desire to explore some of the areas I touch upon more fully. I’m a writer, so I hope people may appreciate a turn of phrase or a line in the book, but I also deal primarily in nonfiction so I hope people will be stimulated by my interpretations of things and my own—for want of a better term—intellectual ideas.

But this book—indeed perhaps any published work—is also a group activity in some way, and I hope that people like the artwork and the whole look of the book. Physical books really matter to me, and this book is very physical, it’s not a damned e-book, you know? So, I find Dan Wininger’s beautiful cover to be absolutely stunning, and I am incredibly flattered that he let the publisher use the picture. So I hope people will read the book and then go and search out his artwork. Likewise I hope readers like the photographs in the book by Lee Ranaldo, Mark Bennett, Barry Hale and Herman Vanaerschot, all of whom provided images that really bring the book to life. There was a very limited edition version of the book too, and that featured a stunning and beautiful print by Belinda Sinclair, and again, I hope people get turned on to her work.

I like it when people come up to me and say they enjoyed something I wrote and how it nailed something for them, or affected them profoundly. Of course, maybe that is also insane and probably a little arrogant. Really, I’m just hoping somebody looks at it.—Jack Sargeant

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